Euphiletus, an Athenian citizen, has been accused of the unlawful murder of Eratosthenes. This essay, or argument, is being used as the speech that Euphiletus must present on his own behalf at his trial, and it has been prepared for him by the famous writer Lysias. The issue at hand is whether or not the killing was justified under Athenian law, which dictates that a man, if caught in the act of adultery with another man's wife, is to be murdered allowably. Lysias used the actual law of the city as proof for the defendant's case in this situation. On page seventy, under the sub-heading "Law", goes straight forth to use a concrete example of the law and its relevance to the aid of the defendant. He states that both men in question, Euphiletus and Eratosthenes, were both fu
Another argument proposed in this essay is the one which details that the action that Eratosthenes was undertaking was an undermining factor to not only Euphiletus's own family, but to the entire community. Lysias uses many examples of how it does so in various parts of this essay. He begins by describing the trust that had formed between wife and husband as being crucial to the upbringing of the children has been put in jeopardy by the adulterous actions. He uses examples that include the children not being aware that their own real father might indeed by another man than the one that they had grown to know. Lysias described instances, such as when the wife would go nurse the baby, where the husband would lie in bed completely trusting his wife, and then went on to detai
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